We learned yesterday from Deadline that Marvel Studios are finally moving forward on Deadpool 3 almost a year Ryan Reynolds announced publicly that development started at Marvel. While the report mentioned how closely Ryan would be working with the studio as he reprises the role of Wade Wilson and seemingly will keep his position as part of the creative team while two creatives are missing from the report entirely (“team Deadpool” is mentioned) questioning their involvement.
Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, the screenwriters and executive producers on the previous two Deadpool films are absent from the article announcing that The Molyneux Sisters (Bob’s Burgers) would be tackling the Deadpool 3 script.
Have they’ve exited the project?
The two had been originally set to write Deadpool 3 when the project was at 20th Century Fox and post-merger met with Marvel Studios over the summer of 2019 with Ryan. There had been an assumption they had been chosen to write the outline/story for the sequel or at the very least help produce given their success with the X-Men character. However, their names don’t appear in the Deadline report or in the follow-ups from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
The screenwriting duo had been tapped by Disney to pen Pirates of The Caribbean 6 (a reboot) before the script changed hands to Ted Elliot and Craig Mazin. They had also reunited with Ryan for Michael Bay’s Netflix film 6 Underground and a mature take on Clue at 20th Century Studios.
We can’t really ascertain why the pair weren’t mentioned in the article, however, this wouldn’t be the first time a key creative walked away from a Deadpool sequel. You might remember that Tim Miller was all set and ready to direct Deadpool 2 only to exit over “creative differences” which led him to team-up with James Cameron for Terminator: Dark Fate and was replaced with David Leitch. Speaking of David, it’s mentioned that while Marvel is open to him returning as director they’re realistic about his busy schedule and will likely end up hiring a new director.
It’s unclear if they’re even producing or consulting on the film. Hopefully, there will be some clarity in the coming weeks given how much they contributed to the success of the franchise.
Ever since Marvel Studios got rights to mutants and the X-Men we’ve all be heavily anticipating when that could happen it is starting to feel like we’re getting extremely close to at least an introduction to mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe very soon.
Kevin Feige has previously stated that Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff will “truly become the Scarlet Witch” in her solo series WandaVision and the recent trailer has seemingly confirmed certain elements we all assumed would be explored in the show after the cosmic orgainzation S.W.O.R.D. will be introduced which is directly from the pages of the X-Men comics with folks like Dr. Hank McCoy aka Beast among the team.
In the comics, Wanda and her brother Quicksilver are the children of X-Men villain Magneto an origin element that has never been used in the MCU incarnations as the studio had shared use with 20th Century Fox at the time of Avengers: Age of Ultron but weren’t allowed to reference mutants or X-Men. Their powers were explained by HYDRA’s human experiments with Loki’s staff to create metahumans.
Mutants are normally born with a mutant gene that leads to their superpowers.
It’s been assumed for a long time that series would be a version of House of M storyline, where Wanda creates a new reality, this would explain why a very dead Vision can father twins (Speed and Wiccan) and why we don’t see them outside of this suburban neighborhood.
There was seemingly a direct nod to the comic run in the new trailer with a shot of a wine bottle called Maison du Mepris (House of Contempt), which could be seen as House of M nod from certain perspectives.
I’m also thinking the wine bottle is a nod to the 1963 French New Wave film from director Jean-Luc Godard titled Le Mépris aka Contempt.
LE MEPRIS – A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife (Brigitte Bardot).
The reference might have a double meaning and indicate a future rift between Wanda/Vision with the “House of Contempt” becoming the one they’re stuck in leading to friction. It’s also worth noting we still don’t have any indication that the series will introduce any mutants and if Monica Rambeau lands her powers in the series we don’t know if she’ll have mutant status.
Then again, Wanda could manifest mutant properties in people across the globe these are comic book stories after all.
There are likely more casting and character surprises on the way.
Kathryn Hahn is rumored to be playing legit witch Agatha Harkness, but Marvel has yet to make this official. If she is indeed playing Harkness as the witch costume would suggest, this could connect the character to large events in the Marvel universe’s past including the sinking of the Kingdom of Atlantis. This event is referred to in the comics as The Great Cataclysm and has direct ties to the Eternals. One version has a Celestial and the Deviants causing it. Another one in the Ultimate Universe suggests that Agatha had something to do with the fate of Atlantis.
I wouldn’t be shocked if S.W.O.R.D. is involved because Mephisto has a part to play with what is going on with Wanda and Vision, a cosmic entity that happens to be Marvel’s version of the devil and could be pulling the strings as he likes to torture various heroes. However, I’m not entirely sure why S.W.O.R.D. is doing there unless they believe that whatever is happen is somehow alien related and it very well could be.
Chloe Zhoa’s Eternals seems like another perfect oppurtunity to give audiences a new version of the mutants via the mutant gene that inserted into humanity via Celesitials, who are a third offshoot of Eternals and Deviants. It is established in the comics Harkness has been on Earth for a long time and was kicking around during The Great Cataclysm, 20,000 years in the past and would have likely had run ins with Eternals and Celesitials given her age/powers in the comics.
Harkness given her age making her either mutant or an eternal herself wouldn’t be shocking. I don’t think it would take much of a leap to connect her to Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman aka Black Knight either given his connection sorcery and witchcraft.
An Atlantis connection via WandaVision or Eternals could help usher in mutants in another way beyond Scarlet Witch’s powers and The Multiverse.
It’s been established that Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner is the first mutant concerning Marvel’s publication history as he predates the X-Men as one of the very first legacy superheroes with mutant abilities and there was even a run in 2011 titled Namor: The First Mutant. That same year he joined the X-Men during events like Avengers vs X-Men and was recently seen in X-Men Red.
While they made sure to separate his mutant abilities like flying from his Atlantean power-set, there is a chance that Marvel alters that for the MCU version. In the 1960s, Professor Xavier and Magneto tried to recruit him into their various mutant factions and only recently has joined their ranks.
Namor is an extremely important crossover character with connections to the Fantastic Four, The Illuminati, and Agents of Atlas led by Randall Park’s Jimmy Woo with his cousin Namora on the team. He also teamed up with Hulk, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and others on the original version of The Defenders.
There had been some teases from director Scott Derrickson on Twitter that Namor could be part of his sequel Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, but that element hinted to may not have survived the development process or the final version that Sam Raimi makes. Then again, Harkness in WandaVision and Eternals both covering Atlantis could help establish Namor beforehand.
Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi is part of the Agents of Atlas which could be another entry point to introduce Atlantis, Namor, and Namora into the MCU. There are already unconfirmed rumors that Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings will include a mutant character.
It’s still pretty damn neat we’re getting the mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe even if we have to wait a couple more years before the main X-Men team gets a proper reboot. However, it’s still not cut-and-dry when we’ll start seeing recognizable mutant characters but I’m eager to find out.
There has been a small fan campaign online to get New Zealand actor Antony Starr into the mix to play Logan aka Wolverine in the Marvel Studios reboot of the X-Men franchise.
While promoting the second season of Amazon’s The Boys, Antony spoke to Screen Greek where he revealed an interest in playing the berserker mutant if the opportunity knocked after being asked which X-Men character he’d like to play.
STARR: “I would say Wolverine!”
“Big shoes to fill, man. Jackman’s pretty much put his mark on that, hasn’t he? So, I never say never, man – but at the moment, I’m just enjoying what we’re doing here. I mean, to be honest, Wolverine doesn’t wear spandex, which is definitely a negative for me. I do like the feel of tight pants, you know, if they can tighten the jeans up, maybe.”
“We can get some kind of tight leather jeans going on – or maybe a pants suit. I could be tempted – but I’m just happy to be doing what I’m doing, brother, and whatever comes, comes. I appreciate the fans, you know. We’ve got a great bunch of fans and they’re really enthusiastic and passionate, so, I love their ideas and their support. I hope they enjoy Season Two of The Boys and I’m just stoked we get a chance to do Season Three as well.”
The actor currently plays Homelander on the satirical superhero series The Boys, an extremely dark take on the Superman archetype. His co-star and fellow Kiwi, Karl Urban, just happened to play Skurge The Executioner in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok directed by Taika Watititi.
Season 2 of The Boys drops on September 4th on Amazon Prime Video and they’ve already announced Season 3 is moving forward.
Antony isn’t the role actor being suggested by fans.
There has been relentless effort to have Kingsman actor Taron Egerton considered for the role which the actor has downplayed in various interviews over the last two years.
Taron has a connection to former Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, as they co-starred together in the sports comedy Eddie The Eagle. He called the persistent Wolverine rumors “flattering” while chatting with GQ recently but, yet again, downplayed their validity.
EGERTON: “That anyone thinks I would be good for the part is really flattering. I love Marvel, but it’s just fan stuff. There is no grounding for those rumours.”
Speaking of Hugh, he had voiced his support for Mad Max: Fury Road actor Tom Hardy to take over the role before he eventually was cast as Sony’s Eddie Brock aka Venom.
Last year, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn revealed to Coming Soon he wanted to cast a younger version of Wolverine with Tom Hardy for a film that would take place between First Class and X-Men: Day of Future Past.
VAUGHN: “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue because they didn’t listen to me. My plan was First Class, then the second film was new young Wolverine in the 70s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be Days of Future Past. That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together?”
“When I finished the Days of Future Past script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, ‘I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end’. Fox read Days of Future Past and went ‘Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!’. And I said, ‘Well what do you do next? Trust me you’ve got nowhere to go’. Then they did Apocalypse and it’s like… If you flip that round even it would have been better. Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash.”
Hardy is very unlikely to be considered given his current role in the Venom franchise.
Marvel Studios is currently dealing with a backlog of film and television projects after the Coronavirus pandemic paused multiple productions globally, combined with previous hints from Marvel’s Kevin Feige that they’re not in any rush to make a new X-Men film anytime soon.
A Fantastic Four reboot is rumored to be the first former Fox property that they’ll be building a film around. However, neither a director nor a screenwriter has been announced.
Another week, another batch of interesting stories concerning upcoming Marvel films and shows.
Anthony Mackie Says ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Has Very Little To Do Before Wrapping
While speaking with Jimmy Fallon, MCU star Anthony Mackie revealed they only have a little bit more to shoot whenever The Falcon & The Winter Soldier is allowed to resume filming.
MACKIE: “Well, I’m happy to say we are not canceled, we are on hold. So, we’re going back, hopefully, sometime soon to finish it up. We have very little stuff to do.”
This lines-up with recent comments from Steven Soderbergh that his crime flick Kill Switch was expected to begin shooting in two weeks when productions across the globe were placed on pause. Winter Soldier’s Sebastian Stan was set for a lead role in Kill Switch, which would have meant he expected to have completed the Disney+ series by that time.
Marisa Tomei Hopes Aunt May’s Professional Life Is Highlighted In ‘Spider-Man 3’
Marisa Tomei is on the promotion tour for her new film The King of Staten Island and revealed to Screen Rant what she’d like to see happen with Aunt May in the upcoming Spider-Man sequel.
TOMEI: “Well, I’ve had her – [director] Jon Watts and I always talked about her being a community organizer. And hopefully, that track will expand and be part of this one, as well.”
When Spider-Man 3 (aka Serenity Now) begins filming is a large question mark, as it was set to shoot mostly in the United States, and the country in the middle of a pandemic. Sony Pictures had wanted Tom Holland to shoot their Uncharted feature film before moving on to the Spidey sequel, which had set to begin shooting back in March in Germany before global film production was placed on hold due to the Coronavirus.
There is now an expectation that Uncharted will resume first because pre-production was completed and sets are ready to go. While where Marvel Studios is concerning Spider-Man 3 is a bit unknown given that set construction wasn’t likely happening during stay-at-home orders.
Wolverine Villains Connected To ‘The Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ Series?
A neat little tidbit was highlighted last week by Murphy’s Multiverse concerning an image of a gang member’s jacket from the Madripoor set of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The site tried to decode what the Easter Egg might be concerning the symbol on the jacket.
If you’re unaware, Madripoor is a location from the X-Men comics and it’s where that a handful of solo Wolverine adventures took place. It’s located in Southeast Asia and is essentially run by criminal organizations allowing syndicates to conduct business without any interference from authorities. This has led many to believe that Marvel Studios might use the location to tease mutants and maybe even Logan.
I then pointed out on Twitter that this symbol on their jacket is most likely an homage to Ogun’s mask (taking cues from the traditional Hannya mask).
Ogun is a Japanese X-Men villain with telepathic powers that has connections to Wolverine (his mentor), Kitty Pryde (brainwashes her), the Yakuza, and the villainous organization the Serpent Society.
Captain America: Serpent Society you might remember was the fake title for Captain America 3 before Kevin Feige revealed they were tackling Civil War and announced Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther.
The group of villains could easily become the new HYDRA for Sam Wilson’s incarnation of Captain America in the series and potentially in a new wave of solo films as well.
Ogun’s connection to a gang in the series could mean a lot of things, the Yakuza operating on the island could help establish connections to future underworld figures like The Hand or even someone like fellow Wolverine villain Omega Red (resurrected by the Yakuza). The character himself showing up could help establish that criminal villains with powers are starting to show up in the universe, either being mutants themselves or through other means. A way to possibly tease mutants are showing up in the MCU before the X-Men are rebooted.
Madripoor might also tease other Wolverine/X-Men villains.
One of the leaders of Serpent Society was Viper, who is Ophelia Sarkissian aka Madame Hydra. The villainess has a direct connection to the island nation of Madirpoor, as Viper was in control of it. Like Ogun, Viper has crossed paths with Wolverine on multiple occasions and at one point even married him. An altered version of the character was used in James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but unlike her comic book counterpart was referred to Dr. Green and was a snake-like mutant that was able to spit venom.
Marvel Studios is known to make characters fit various projects by slightly altering them for their needs. Zemo is a perfect example of that. Viper doesn’t even have to be Ophelia they could easily have Rachel Leighton aka Diamondback or Sinthea Shmidt aka Sin take that leadership role.
Originally, the series was supposed to begin airing this August or fall, but the production shutdown might have delayed those plans as Disney hasn’t officially announced new release dates for original programming other than The Mandalorian Season 2 sticking to it’s October start date.
Linda Cardellini Interested In Marvel Making A Laura Barton Movie
Avengers actress Linda Cardellini recently spoke with Collider about seeing more of her in the MCU and she brought up the possibility of her character Laura Barton getting her own film.
CARDELLINI: “I mean, you know, it was one of those things where I was sort of brought into the universe and it truly is its own universe. It’s its own entity with this fandom that is incredible and to be part of it is, I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. My daughter’s friends love it. It’s one of those kinds of things, you know? So it’s always fun. I mean, would I love to see a Laura Barton movie? Sure! But I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I think people are more interested in the superheroes.”
I don’t think this would ever happen unless they attempted to give Laura another superhero’s mantle. I personally wouldn’t be opposed to Laura becoming the hard-canon version of Mockingbird. Depending on where in the timeline that the Hawkeye series takes place, there is a good chance that Linda will return for that show giving her more to do.
THE RONIN 